Community Corner

Letter to the Editor: Why are Palatine Township Trustees Paid?

Palatine resident Vicki Wilson asks why Palatine Township trustees are paid to serve.

Before tomorrow's Palatine Township primary, it's critical the community is aware of a certain piece of information.

Before I begin, I want to start by saying I have never understood why the Palatine Township Trustees are paid for their duties. Why is that a paid position? They meet monthly, just like the District 15 and District 211 Boards of Education. However, being on a Board of Ed is an unpaid volunteer position.

Why the difference? 

Find out what's happening in Palatinewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

One could easily argue a Board of Education position has significantly more responsibility, more stress, more visibility, a larger time commitment, and more impact on the community. It certainly, without a doubt, has much more impact on our property taxes. I strongly urge the new Trustees to think about this and develop a course of action to fix this anomaly. It may not be easy but nothing worth doing ever is. I realize "it's always been this way" - that is answer I received when I posed this question at a forum - but that's not an answer or a reason to continue getting paid for something that should be volunteer, in my opinion.

Anyway, back to my initial reason for writing.

Find out what's happening in Palatinewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Last September, a pay increase for the Trustee positions was voted in. Now, given my stance on this position being paid at all, one can imagine my shock to hear about an increase.

My source is the meeting minutes from September 2012: http://www.palatinetownship.com/storage/board-minutes/9-24-12%20Minutes.pdf

Here is the part of which to take note:

"There is a potential $900 increase in Trustee salaries, in the event that the increased per diem meeting allowance were maximized."

ROLL CALL: 

Ayes: Farina, Huley, Goes, Langlotz-Johnson, Fleming

Nays: None

So, there you have it. Five 'yes' votes and zero 'no' votes. Does that make sense to you? It sure doesn't to me.

Please vote tomorrow.
Sincerely,

Vicki Wilson

Palatine resident

Editor's note: Letters to the Editor are presented as they are originally submitted by our readers. Palatine Patch neither agrees nor disagrees with the opinions presented. 


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here